SELBY Town Hall is to play host to an autumn programme of 20 shows featuring award winners, chart toppers and television and radio stars from the worlds of music, comedy and theatre.

Squeeze founder and lyricist Chris Difford kicks off proceedings on September 2 with a duo show alongside Mercury Prize-nominated singer and songwriter Kathryn Williams, while on September 22, two of English folk’s most iconic artists, Martin Carthy and his daughter Eliza, travel from Robin Hood's Bay for one of their most intimate gigs of the year on their rare duo tour.

Uplifting Yorkshire indie six-piece Hope & Social begin their autumn album tour at the town hall on October 6; Eastbourne singer-songwriter David Ford showcases his upcoming new album, Animal Spirits, on September 16; Brooklyn-raised singer-songwriter Nell Bryden sings her country, jazz, blues and soul songs on October 13, and Neasden's queen of soul, Mari Wilson, presents Pop Deluxe, on October 19 in a new show featuring songs by the Brit girls who inspired her: Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, Sandie Shaw and Cilla Black.

Mike Vernon, founder of Britain’s number one blues record label, Blue Horizon, plays with The Mighty Combo, namely Kid Carlos, guitar, Paul Tasker saxophone, Matt Little, keyboards, Ian Jennings, upright bass, and Mike Hellier, drums, on November 2; Tom Landa's Canadian folk rock band The Paperboys perform everything from Cajun slamgrass to worldbeat, on November 7; Animals And Friends, featuring original Animals drummer John Steel and keyboard player Mickey Gallagher plus Danny Handley and Roberto Ruiz, revisit their hits and more on November 10.

Lady Maisery, the BBC Folk Award-nominated vocal trio, perform their traditional mouth music, or “diddling”, a form of singing without words, on November 19; Soft Machine, the central band in the fabled Canterbury progressive and jazz-rock scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s, progressive and jazz-rock, line up with Seventies' members John Etheridge, John Marshall and Roy Babbington, plus sax, flute and keyboard player Theo Travis, on November 25.

The Way Down Wanderers, a modern folk Americana five-piece, from Peoria, Illinois, make their Selby debut on November 26; country-folk pioneers Matthews Southern Comfort recall their Woodstock days, led by Iain Matthews in the last Selby Town Hall music show of 2017 on December 8.

York Press:

Singer-songwriter David Ford

Tickets have been flying out of the town hall doors for a strong comedy offering, with Paul Chowdhry's new Live Innit show on September 9 and dapper, disparagingly camp Bromley comic Tom Allen's Absolutely show on December 8, on his debut solo tour, selling out in double-quick time.

Look out, too, for Stephen K Amos's antidote to Brexit, Trump and no more Mary Berry on the Great British Bake Off in Bread & Circuses on November 28 and Dead Ringers star Jan Ravens, with her impressions of Theresa May, Diane Abbott, Nicola Sturgeon, Kirsty Wark, Fiona Bruce and more besides, in Difficult Woman on November 17. "Who runs the world? Fifty-something women, apparently. Why are women perceived as difficult when we're just being decisive, ambitious and tenacious? Well, come on, why?" she asks.

Are you lost? Is your soul cream-crackered? Are you disillusioned with the present state of things? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, check out comic duo Angelos & Barry in The New Power Generation? on September 29, when they will identify your weaknesses, expose them in front of everyone and then cure you 100 per cent, "like therapists and gods rolled into one". Expect a ramshackle evening of barmy banter from burger van proprietor Angelos Epithemiou and octogenarian grumbler Barry from Watford as they leave their dignity at the door.

For theatre fans, Pip Utton presents his hit show Playing Maggie, featuring his audience with Margaret Thatcher, on September 23, while Russell Layton’s whirlwind comedy Hurricane Michael reimagines the circumstances surrounding Michael Fish’s infamous failure to forecast the great storm of 1987 in irreverent style in Hurricane Michael on October 21.

"From folk to pop, character comedy to theatrical portraits and Mexican son jaracho to jazz-rock, there’s a genuinely eclectic feel to our autumn line-up,” says Selby Town Council arts officer Chris Jones. “I’m delighted that, once again, we're amongst the smallest venues on the tours of some really established artists and are also hosting a few shows that you would have to travel hundreds of miles to see anywhere else.

"On a personal level, I can’t wait to see brilliant young Illinois Americana quintet The Way Down Wanderers with their good-time sunshine harmonies, as well as David Ford, one of the UK’s most acclaimed singer songwriters of the last decade. There are gems here to suit all tastes."

Details of the full season can be found at selbytownhall.co.uk. Tickets are available online and on 01757 708449.